Wine & Whiskey
by BooBar
Summary: Basically I had a dream and the next day I wrote this; not amazing but I liked the story... Harry hosts a party after everyone graduates from Hogwarts. The mix of alcohol, dancing and boys/girls makes for an interesting night. Rated T for safety


**So, this is basically a dream I had about me and a guy I knew at school and thought it would work really well for Ron/Hermione Story. Bits of Neville/Luna and tiny bit of Harry/Ginny.**

**Set 15 months after the war ended.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters or location. They belong to J.K Rowling.**

The party was in full swing at Grimmauld Place with hired waiters, a bar and all of Harry's friends. It had taken them a while to get round to actually doing it but the party he had arranged for the summer was going to be one to remember. He stood at the bar with Ginny and Ron, laughing about a quidditch match from the weekend before. George stood with them and found he was enjoying himself for the first time in a while. He had found a new best friend in his younger brother and they spent a lot of time together with Ginny and Harry.

It had been over a year since the war ended but the pain of Fred's death lived with him every day. Luna and Neville had taken the war as a reason to not let anything get passed them, to embrace every moment, every feeling and each moment they had together. It was evident how much they felt for each other as they barely spent any time apart. As for Seamus, Dean and the rest of the Gryffindor crowd, they were all settled and had gotten back on track in the past few months with most working for the ministry or in some kind of magical career.

It had been over an hour and as the music pumped out, Hermione began to feel her throat dry a bit and after a horrible argument with her mother over something earlier in the day, she decided that tonight she would let her hair down and have some fun. She was going to ask Luna to join her at the bar but she seemed otherwise engaged.

"Hello, can I help you?" The bartender asked as Hermione made her way to the bar.

"Hi. Erm, can I get a fire whiskey, oh wait actually…I don't suppose you have any muggle drinks do you?"

"Are you Hermione?" The bartender asked, as he leant over the bar trying to hear her over the music

"Yes, I am. Is something wrong?" She replied, looking rather worried and confused as to how he knew who she was. Sure, people had identified them from their battle wounds after the war but that had been just over a year ago and she was dressed a lot better than her photos from after the last battle that had appeared in the newspaper.

"No, nothing wrong, just give me a second, yeah?" The bartender shouted as he went to the other side of the bar where Hermione caught a glimpse of Ron and Harry, laughing and joking. She quickly looked away before they made eye contact and was faced with an image of Neville and Luna snogging in the darkest part of the room. Content on realising that everyone at the party was having a better time than her, she sat at the bar stool fidgeting with her dress to cover the top of her leg, feeling insecure.

"Sorry about that. This was placed as a special order for you at the beginning of the night. Some guy said that you weren't too fussed on the fire whiskey and requested we make sure there enough of these for you. I'd say he's a keeper Miss if you don't mind me saying. The way he described you, he must be so in love" He lifted a silver tray onto the bar and on it there were three bottles, one containing white wine; another with red and the third looked like a bottle of bucks fizz.

"Oh, thank you. Brilliant." She took a glass and pointed to the clear bottle of white wine and asked if she could have some. She blushed at the thought that someone would have arranged this especially for her and then with a look of confusion, she scanned the room looking at who could have done it. She began to get an uneasy feeling as she looked and saw Cormack was in the room. He had been eyeing her all night but that was no change and since they had drunk at the Leaky Cauldron a few times, she figured he could be a contender.

A memory stirred and it soon became obvious that the only other person it could be was Ron. The wine was a typical muggle drink but the bucks fizz was a drink she had only ever shared with Ron on their 6 month anniversary. Hermione let her mind drift back to that night and how sweet and romantic it had been. Ron had booked a table at her favourite restaurant and was dressed in a suit and tie, arriving to pick her up with a bunch of daisies in his hand. She shook her head as if she were trying to get the memory out. She looked to where he had been standing just moments before and saw that Ginny was holding Harry's hand dragging him to the middle of the floor where a few others were dancing. She took a deep breath and flattened her dress as she got off the bar stool.

"Hey" She said as she tapped his shoulder lightly. Ron turned around. It was the first time she had properly looked at him all night. He was wearing black jeans and a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He still made her heart melt, seeing him so laid back and cool with a bottle in his hand and looking so hot!

"Oh…hey, you look beautiful" She blushed slightly at his comment and it sent a shiver right down to her toes.

"Thanks, I just wanted to say thanks for the drinks. I tried to pay for them but the guy stopped me." She let a smile creep onto her face as tilted her head so she could lean her elbow on the corner of the bar with her head resting on top.

"No problem, I just knew you would prefer this to the other stuff, plus it seems to be making people a bit wild." He said subtly gesturing over to Luna and Neville who were dancing a bit too close to each other in a public place.

She laughed and threw her head back as she did this, making her hair go messy.

"Bloody hell, I've missed hearing that." From the look on both of their faces, it was clear he had crossed a line on some sort. Still, he tried to make things friendly between them asking for a dance. She softly touched his hand that was resting on the bar, and replied simply with "Maybe after another drink".

Needless to say, after finishing the bottle of white wine and half of the bucks fizz between them, they made their way to the dance floor. Harry and Ginny had disappeared and though both Ron and Hermione knew they'd gone to his bedroom, neither made the comment out loud. Just as they began to dance to the up-tempo music the stereo stopped and a slower track came on. Hermione and Ron looked up at each other both expecting the other one to walk off the dance floor, leaving Neville and Luna with Seamus and his girlfriend. Hermione couldn't understand what had come over her (she assumed it was the alcohol) as she took Ron's hand in hers and pulled him closer to her.

"Dance with me, please? I like this song" She said as she placed one hand on Ron's chest and the other on his shoulder. She was relived to feel Ron's hands go behind her, locking his fingers on the small of her back.

"I thought so, it sounds like you." He paused for a moment, resting his chin on her head as she swayed to the music.

"Oh really, how do you mean?"

"You don't get much info from the lyrics but the music tells you everything you need to know, need to feel." 'Great answer' Ron thought to himself, but as his words echoed back to him he realised that it was exactly what he wanted her to hear, the truth.

"I still don't get it." She said locking her deep brown eyes on his blue ones.

"I can read you like a book 'Mione." She felt like she had butterflies in her stomach; Ron hadn't called her that for a long time. In fact, they hadn't spoken like this in over 3 months. "I never need to ask what's going on with you, which is good because it's not often you open up to people anyways. I just look into your eyes and I know exactly what's going on in that heart of yours." He slipped his hands lower so he was now inches away from touching her bottom.

The music stopped and the moment they pulled back from each other, resulting in more mumbling from the other couples in the room.

"My head's spinning. I think I should get some sleep."

"I'll walk you to your room; don't want you to fall over on the steps after what you've had to drink" As Ron said this he held his hand out hoping Hermione would take him up on his offer. She did.

Like the perfect gentleman, Ron helped her get up the stairs and waited outside the bathroom for her to get her pyjamas on before then opening her sleeping bag and waiting for her to fall asleep before leaving her, being careful not to step on Luna on his way out of the bedroom. He had got his own room for the night after winning a bet against Seamus in a drinking game and as he lay in his boxers, he wanted nothing more than to have Hermione next to him.

With the next morning's sunrise came a few headaches. Ron was better at handling his drink than most and as he woke, his mind wondered how Hermione must be feeling this morning. She had quite a bit more to drink than Ron had and as she wasn't used to the alcohol and parties. His concern for her was the only thing that could get him out of bed so he put his pair of jeans and quietly stepped onto the landing so not to disturb anyone.

To his surprise, well actually maybe not, he opened the door to the girl's room to find Luna and Neville under the same blanket, his arms around her; Luna's hair covering what looked like a naked top half of her body.

"What happened in here last night?" Ron whispered to himself as he stepped over the couple and went to kneel next to the bed that Hermione had been sleeping on. He stroked her hair gently felt her temperature. After feeling how hot she was, he went to the bathroom next door and returned with a damp cloth to rub on her forehead. He resumed his position next the bed and sat there for around twenty minutes, patting the cloth on Hermione's forehead every few minutes. He heard a groan come from the room and saw that Hermione was beginning to wake up and although she didn't want to admit it, she was happy that Ron was there looking after her, and without a shirt.

"Morning Ronald, ow! Damn that fizz!" He smiled at her realisation of the alcohol effects.

"Hey, how're you doing? You felt a little warm so I hope you don't mind, I got this to cool you down" He picked up the cloth to show her then put it back down on the bedside table.

"Oh, thanks Ron. I'm alright I think, just a headache and I feel a little bit sick"

"Well you know I'm here if you need me. I doubt Luna and Neville will be waking any time soon, looks like they had a wild night." At this, Hermione slowly lifted her head and saw the topless couple on the bed at the other side of the room.

"Eww, Ewwww. Oh God, what happened in here last night? Was I in here when they? What did they -actually I don't want to think about it" Hermione moved closer to Ron as she said this and he let a giggle escape from his mouth. She smiled and tapped the bed next to her encouraging Ron to sit on it. He obeyed and squeezed next to her, his muscular frame taking up most of the bed. She lay back and he leaned against the metal frame at the top of the bed.

"What happened to us Ron?" She was almost shocked that she had said this out loud. "I mean, we were always with each other, we were so close, so in love. Now, after three months of exchanging the odd smile, we are lying on a bed together and dancing and drinking together like nothing had ever happened."

"Maybe that was the problem," Ron sighed as he placed his arm behind his head to lean on it "We were so in love and with the war and everything, all the emotions that had been held in for so long. Maybe we just moved too fast and when you went back to Hogwarts after the summer, I hated living without you, not having you around, it killed me. The first few weeks we were apart I cried myself to sleep."

She didn't know if it was the effects of the alcohol or the words that were coming out of Ron's mouth that made her do it; she lay there on the bed, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Maybe" was all that she could manage to get out, she let her actions do the talking as she intertwined her fingers into Ron's. "Do you think we could ever go back to who we were?"

As difficult as it was, she still cared about him a great deal. Ron rubbed his thumb against her hand as he reminisced on all of the times they had shared together.

"We were kids, whose main goal in life was to stay alive. I don't think we will ever have to go back to that; at least, I bloody hope we won't." She smiled at his use of the word; she loved how expressive it was coming from his lips. "Maybe we could be better versions of ourselves now you know? Not that you could get any better." Their moment was interrupted by mumbles coming from the bed near the door.

"Eurgh, Lu? Luna…I think its morning. Oh, god my head kills. Luna? Where're our clothes?" All Neville got in reply was "Hold me Neville, nobody will ever find out about our passionate love making if we stay here and don't talk to them."

Ron had slid down the bed, his head resting on the pillow and was facing away from them, trying to conceal his laughter at Luna's last comment when he was muted by Hermione's lips on his own, her hand touching his cheek.

"You've always been perfect to me Ron. I can't believe how silly I was to let you go after everything we've been through." She lay next to him playing with his hair as his arms wrapped around her.

"We can do this can't we? We can make this work. We just have to take it a bit slower" She softly placed her lips on his again and replied with a simple "Yes, baby. I can't imagine my life without you." Hermione nestled herself into Ron's chest and as they were falling asleep together, they could see that there was hope for the future and that things wouldn't be going back to how they were before; they would be better.


End file.
